


First Snow

by Paint_It_Yellow



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 02:12:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paint_It_Yellow/pseuds/Paint_It_Yellow
Summary: It can be hard pressed to find fun when your life is in danger but you can always make do when the circumstances arise.





	First Snow

It hadn’t been long since the group had set up camp for the day, a house that wasn’t nearly as old as it should’ve been in order to be abandoned as it was, in fact, Elias had thought it must’ve been finished rather recently. No one really pondered over why it had been abandoned, that much was obvious by pure circumstance. 

“Does anyone have any matches?" Angus called from the living room to the kitchen where most of the others sat except for two as Rae and Valora swept through the house once more, just to be safe. 

Aleena was the first one to act on the call for matches despite the fact that Elias was pretty sure she, just like everyone else in the room, didn’t have any on her. Mind you, she was pretty weird, he wouldn’t be all to surprised if she managed to pull them out of some sort of pocket dimension or something like that. Instead though, she started to rummage through the cupboards with a surprising lack of noise; perhaps the house had already been ransacked by some other survivors hoping to get some more rations. She did seem to find some eventually though, heading through to the living room to give them to Angus. 

“I hope they get that fire up soon, it’s freezing in here,” Ea, Elias’ twin, groaned, stretching across the table. 

“Hmm, I wonder why that could be,” Valora replied sarcastically, leaning on the doorway as Rae walked to sit on one of the seats. 

“Don’t start an argument now, we just got here,” Nara interjected as Elias glanced towards Ea, willing him not to start something with Valora again. 

“So later then?” Ea piped up cheerfully, Valora nodding along. 

“Arguing’s the only thing keeping us sane at this point, you can’t deny us sanity,” Valora added in her own argument. 

“How can y’have the energy for it after sweeping the house again?” Ari mumbled, leaning his head in his hand. 

Valora just shrugged and didn’t say anything. It didn’t really matter anyhow. 

“Fire’s on! Come on through!” 

Chairs were pretty much flung as everyone rushed through to the living room, Rae being the one who was left to set any chairs back upright and close the door to the living room as she finally took a seat next to Nara. 

“Is everyone in here?” She asked, taking a quick scope of the room. It wouldn’t do to have someone wandering around alone even when it was pretty much confirmed to be undead-free now. 

“I don’t think Blaze is here,” Nara replied, sinking into the sofa she was sitted in, not all too bothered at the missing group member. “Maybe he went with Pippa, I don’t think she’s here either.”

“Why go with Pippa though? Do they even get along?” Ari asked, hands outstretched towards the fire. 

“It’s not that they don’t get along so much as they just don’t really talk,” Elias answered. 

“Well, Blaze is quite new to the group, maybe it’s good that they’ve got some time to talk together,” Rae tried to be optimistic about their disappearances which was met by a hum by Nara. 

“I’ll go and look for them!” Ea volunteered, sticking his hand up into the air eagerly. 

“Not alone you aren’t.”

“Elias’ll go with me, won’t you?” Ea nudged his brother, already knowing the answer. 

Said boy sighed and nodded. Rae pursed her lips before sighing herself. 

“And here I thought you would’ve wanted to warm up by the fire,” Valora mused, “Have you got your pistols on you?” 

The two boys nodded. 

“Okay then. Don’t find them in five minutes and you come back.”

“Roger that!” The two of them said before they headed back to the hallway and up the stairs. Five minutes was pretty generous, Elias had thought, it was a small house after all. Probably a council house before the whole apocalypse fiasco. 

“They’re probably in one of these bedrooms,” Ea mumbled mostly to himself, “Maybe one of them’s actually confessin’ or somethin’.”

“Please don’t put that image into my head, Ea.” Elias shivered slightly, he really couldn’t picture that. 

Ea grinned back at him. “You’re the one who made the image.”

Elias just sent a glare over at him which earned him a slight chuckle as he went to open one of the doors. 

The two entered the bedroom carefully, the carpeted floor messy and furniture covered in dust. There was even some long-dried blood on the sheets of the double bed. It was a small room though, so they didn’t really need any more information to be told it didn’t have any people in there other than those who had just entered. 

“I’m so claiming this room tonight,” Ea mentioned as they closed the door behind them. 

“Dude, there’s blood on the sheets.”

Shrugging, Ea looked towards Elias. “Bed looks comfy though.”

“Can’t argue with that logic, sure.”

The moment the next door was opened, the first thing they noticed was the open window, no breeze coming through but it certainly did make the room absolutely baltic. The second thing they noticed was Blaze sitting on the floor by the window, gun in hand as he sent a steely glare towards them. Nothing out of the usual for him perhaps, but as his gaze shifted from them, the two noticed the figure lying in the bed, facing away from them. They assumed it was the only other member missing. Huh. Guess that’s where they were. Okay then. 

Deciding it was probably best to not get involved, the two backed up and closed the door before heading back down. 

“Maybe you were right.”

Ea looked at Elias, confused. 

“About them hooking up?” Elias continued. 

“Na, think they just trust each other with protection.”

“Yeah but two people who don’t talk much in general? How’d they communicate that?” 

“I don’t know, telepathy?”

“Shit, does that make Aleena psychic too?” 

“I think we’re onto something here.”

“What’s this about Aleena?” Angus interrupted, letting the two realise that they’d made it down to the living room which really should’ve been obvious, it was already starting to warm up compared to the rest of the house. 

“Nothing,” the two responded in unison, Aleena looked at them, her face neutral but they knew that she knew. 

“Did you find them?” 

“They’re in one of the bedrooms, Pippa fell asleep.”

Nara opened her mouth to speak but Ari interrupted quickly. “Don’t even start.”

“Jeez, just a bit of fun, s’all.”

“Can we move on from this topic?” Valora sighed in annoyance. 

“I agree, lets.”

There was a bit of silence as the group mostly just sat and relaxed by the fire, it had been a few days since they’d been able to have a heat source that wasn’t other people since most houses nowadays had electric fire which wasn’t exactly the most helpful of things, mind you, the houses themselves were much better than trying to camp outside that was just… Not a fun experience. 

It didn’t take long for Elias to start to feel tired with this heat source around and soon enough, he had succumbed to his fate, leaning into Ea who followed his example not too soon after. The rest of the group managed to stay awake for the most part, though for some it was only a certain amount of time. Aleena had found a single chair to curl up on while both Nara and Ari had found it suitable to use Rae as a headrest. Luckily for her, she didn’t mind. If it had been Valora they wouldn’t be able to sleep for the rest of the day most likely. 

“Well that’s all the loud ones gone,” Valora mentioned offhandedly, stretching her legs out and her arms overhead before relaxing her muscles and sinking into her chair. 

“I wouldn’t say that, you’re still awake.” Angus looked back at her from his place on the floor. 

“You’re treading a thin line, buddy.”

“Guys, could you not argue maybe? There are people trying to sleep in here.”

“Sorry,” Angus replied, having the decency to actually look sorry. 

Valora also apologised but didn’t seem nearly as genuine. 

“We still have like half a day left, are we just gonna stay in here and search for supplies tomorrow?” Valora asked, not really finding herself all too fond of the thought of holing up all day. 

“Well, that was the plan if I’m completely honest,” Rae admitted, “It’s not like there’ll be very far we can explore outside if we want to get back in time for night, plus, we might as well see what’s left here to take. There might be some supplies or maybe better winter clothing for those that haven’t found any good ones yet.”

“Yeah that’s true,” Angus mused, “I could do with some new jeans too, these ones’re gonna get me frozen with the amount of holes in them. Aleena could probably do with a better jacket too.”

“Nara still hasn’t gotten any boots either, I think her feet are going to end up freezing in those ridiculous canvas shoes,” Valora mused, “I’m fine personally and it is her own fault for not taking the boots when we got to the shop last week.”

“She was so sure that we’d find something soon too.”

“So, I guess once these guys wake up that’s what we should get to doing then,” Rae confirmed with a smile, glancing at the two on her shoulders and then at the three sleeping that weren’t. 

The three lapsed into silence for a few moments before they decided to strike up another conversation about nothing too particular. They couldn’t talk about the past, the future was always unsure and the present was a thing they could only wish would end. 

It was all pretty sudden and quiet until there was a disturbance from Elias who had seemingly woken up which in turn woke up Ea, who was a bit quieter as he rubbed his eyes. 

“Is that  _ snow?!” _ He yelled, jumping from his seat, leaving the still recovering Ea without support and making him almost crash into the sofa though he managed to save himself just before he did. The shouting also seemed to wake up Aleena, though Ari and Nara remained slumped on Rae’s shoulders despite shifted a bit at the noise. Rae wondered if they maybe were wake and were just using sleep as an excuse to use her as a pillow. 

As soon as Ea managed to recover he joined his brother on his feet, also staring at the snow falling in a flurry. The two glanced at each other before making a mad dash for it. 

“Aleena, you’re closest! Stop them!” Valora yelled, forgetting about the other two sleepers though not managing to wake them up still. 

Stop them she did as, despite still being rather tired, she leaned over the back of her chair and grabbed their shoulders. 

“Why can’t we go out?” 

“Yeah, it’s not like there’s zombies running around out there right now!”

“You don’t know that, we’ve been ambushed before,” Valora reprimanded. 

“I don’t see why they can’t go outside if someone goes with them,” Rae tried to help the situation.

“See! Leader’s approval!” 

Valora sighed, glaring towards Rae. It was safe to say that Valora thought rather highly of Rae in a lot of aspects but that didn’t mean she thought she wasn’t a bit too soft, especially when it came to their youngest two members. 

“I’ll go with them,” Angus volunteered, “We can just go to the back garden, there’s a fence out there too. That’ll be safer in two ways compared to their original plan.”

Frowning, Valora gave in and waved her hand in dismissal. 

“Don’t go in a huff now,” Angus joked as he stood up. 

As he walked towards the boys, Aleena finally released her grip on them and sat back in her seat, closing her eyes and hoping to actually get some sleep with the kids gone. 

Said kids were pretty excited about getting to go out in the snow, even happier that it was actually setting since it hadn’t rained for a few days. The three made it out the back door and, despite the snow not being that deep yet, there were some corners in which the snow had managed to pile up, letting them make some snow balls while Angus watched from the steps, sitting on the highest one.

It wasn’t that the boys hadn’t seen snow before because they most certainly had. It wouldn’t be fair to call snow rare where they were originally from, but it wasn’t the most common, some years they wouldn’t get some at all and some years they’d only get a tiny bit or it wouldn’t set because the ground was too wet but this was the first snowfall of the apocalypse. As the snow started to pile up, the flurry not letting, and the snowballs pelting each other, they were both reminded of the last time they had snow. 

They’d been at their gran and grandpa’s house. It was quite a big house, being the same one that the two had lived in back when their mother was just a kid and thus housing four kids total and it had a large garden to go alongside it. This was a few years back now, maybe when they were nine? That sounded about right. A nice three or so years ago now; a sad thought. Momentarily, they wondered how their grandparents were, whether they were zombies, had they died before that, where they alive- they didn’t let themselves dwell on it, focusing on hitting each other with snowballs. 

The whole of the ground had been covered in snow, much like it was beginning to in present time, and they ran outside in excitement, stuffing their wellies on over their trousers and coats seemingly nonexistent until their parents came out to force them into not only coats, but also smother them in a full set of matching hats, scarves and gloves. After that though, it was fair game. Everyone that had been there at the time had come out to watch over the two boys, Ea getting snow in his ever-growing hair while Elias had been saved from that look with much shorter hair, hidden away in his hat. 

Their gran and grandpa had come up to them, teaching them how to make a snowman, their parents helping them to roll the balls up and stack them up as the boys were unable to, their dad teaching them how to make a very terribly built igloo after they had finished, Elias now missing a hat while Ea was now missing a scarf. 

The snow-day of present was substantially different from that day. A day with only joy, only fear of being pelted by a shoddily thrown snowball while this was a day with the underlying fear that they may die at any moment alongside the fear of being pelted by a snowball now thrown with a much better swing. There hadn’t been any snow before now over the course of the apocalypse despite there being a whole year for it to have fallen. It was just hail, that first year. Fitting, Elias had thought. 

“Stop hiding behind the shed!” Ea yelled over. 

“It’s my safe zone!” 

“Fuck your safe zone! We aren’t kids anymore, we fight like  _ men _ now!” 

“No swearing!” Angus called over lamely, not really caring all that much in reality. 

Ea turned around to shoot him a glare, only to be pelted by a snowball in the back of his head, causing him to whip back around before the glare could be fully carried out, chunks of snow now clinging to his hair while some parts fell to cling to his coat instead. 

“That was a dirty trick, Elias!” 

“All’s fair in love and war, dear brother.”

Muttering a curse under his breath, Ea stumbled to scoop some snow up before he got hit by another, charging towards Elias, but not throwing the snowball. As he ran towards his brother, said boy tossed on his way before running away. The snowball managed to hit Ea’s chest but Ea didn’t stop his chase to complain, nor did he slow, he only quickened his pace, grabbing Elias’ arm, jumping around to face him and throwing the snowball right in his face. 

Elias coughed, wiping the snow off of his face, though Ea had long since ran to create a stockpile of snowballs. His eyes narrowed as his face grew ever numb, kneeling to create his own stockpile.

It didn’t take long for the snowball fight to devolve into a fortress invasion-esque battle with several ground rules set and Angus agreeing to make sure neither cheated. 

It was, all in all, pretty simple. Invade the other fortress (ie, get past the snow wall that they had each built) and steal the bit of wood, successfully bring it back and repeat- there wasn’t really an end to the game. No snow balls can be made while in front of your snow wall and if you get it you have to go back to your fortress. 

“You can’t hide forever!” Elias taunted Ea, snowball in hand as he slowly closed the gap between the snow wall and him.

There was no reply.

Then a snowball hit him in the knee. 

“I took a snowball to the knee!”

“Dude that’s an old joke.”

Elias shrugged, making his way back to his base as per the rules. It continued in a similar vein, with Elias managing to steal Ea’s bit of wood twice before Ea managed to steal it back alongside Elias’, putting them into a tie by the time they decided to stop playing, exhausted. 

It wasn’t, however, the last thing they had wanted to do. Just one last thing before they froze to death out in the snow, which was still falling albeit less so than before. Snow got rolled, large, medium, small. Angus just watched, feeling rather frozen as he stood up, feeling like he’d get frozen if he sat down any longer. 

“I’ll help.” And help he did. 

As the boys continued to roll the snow, Angus had the task of placing one after the other. They had only created three by the time the kids had given up, deciding to just give them faces and get inside. They didn’t have any carrots to waste, so they rummaged through the snow to find some stones and placed them appropriately. It was only after the three had stood back to look at their work that Angus spoke up about them. 

“Why’d you make three?” He asked curiously, if anything he’d have expected two at most. 

“Well, ten was the goal but that got a bit tiresome,” Ea answered. 

“And we’d probably run low on snow and space both before we got that far,” Elias added on. 

“Ten? As in, the amount of us in the group?” 

The two nodded, making their way into the house too hopefully thaw out. 

“I suppose we can just say that the three ones out there are us three since we were the ones who made them and all,” Ea mused, earning a nod from Elias. 

“Hey, do you think it’ll snow again?”

“I hope so. Though, maybe not when we’re trying to make our way through it.”

“What if it takes a whole year for it to snow again?” Elias asked, collapsing to the floor in front of the fire alongside Angus and Ea. 

Rae was the one who spoke up this time. 

“Then I suppose you can just hope that the apocalypse is over by then.”

“Why? I mean, sure that’d be great, but specifically why?"

“Less fearing for our lives while trying to have fun,” Valora supplied. 

“Thanks for that one, appreciate it,” Angus groaned, earning a ‘no problem’ in response. 

“It would be nice though,” Rae seemed to continue with her thought. 

The fire flickered and, as Elias reached towards the fire, using his sleeve as to not burn himself on the handle as he opened it to put another log in, everyone had a similar thought to that of Rae. 

_ Yeah, it would be nice.  _


End file.
